From Dorobucci To Soludo’s Hard-rock Treatise By Steve Ayorinde

 

Steve Ayorinde

If the intention of the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, is to reduce the fun and entertainment that characterize the ongoing campaigns and rallies in the country, he is not succeeding. His acerbic treatise on this month’s general polls, titled Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election, may have raised the bar of discussion and drew various degree of responses from the main political parties as indeed commentators. But it has not robbed the campaigns of colour and entertainment verve. 

At each mega rally, attention is given in equal measure to the manifesto and plans of each party and to endorsements from artistes, with each party not neglecting to allow its standard bearers some space to showcase their dancing skills. While the ruling Peoples Democratic Party often loads its stage with popular Nollywood stars and musicians from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones, the All Progressives Congress responds in equal measure, often parading the biggest names in the Fuji and hip-hop music scene. So moved was APC’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, by the music of K1 at the Ibadan campaign rally last week that he attempted a dance. But before auzubillahi could escape from anyone’s lips, the General called himself to order, announcing that he could not recall the last time he danced in public. But his lieutenants in the race are less self-conscious, often announcing their arrivals on the podium by the pulsating sounds of Don Jazzy’s DoroBucci. Music, fun and conviviality certainly appeal to both the purveyor of the broom and the umbrella. However, the carnival atmosphere at our campaigns, often at a huge cost, tends to confirm, on the one hand, the convivial, happy-go-lucky spirit of the average Nigerian. 

No rally appears complete, not even a street protest, without a concert-like, celebratory colouration. But it also confirms, on the other hand, the reason why a timely reminder about the weak state of our economy, and in a way the basis for our collective aspirations as a sovereign nation, should not be danced away on the altar of political exigency. Soludo’s paper and his latest direct salvo on the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, falls within the class of those timely reviews and reminders about why we may not be as strong as we imagine and why our expectations ought to be put in moderate perspective. I should quickly add that I’m not a big fan of the former CBN governor. I do not think that his attempt at the redenomination of the naira after the success of the banking consolidation was well thought-out. This issue was one of the areas where I had once engaged Soludo at a breakfast meeting on the sideline of the IMF/World Bank Autumn Meetings in 2008. There was also the aspect of the unnerving suspicion that he was aware of the bad shape of some of the banks that survived consolidation and still decided to either feign ignorance or tacitly chose to encourage their survival in a manner that could have injured the banking sector or the entire economy if his successor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, had not had the courage to wield the big stick. 

But Soludo’s flaws, no matter how damaging or inconsequential, should not affect the timeliness and importance of self-appraisal that his article represents. Even more important is the fact that the disagreement with some of his policies cannot be sufficient a reason to ignore his admonition on the state of our economy as Okonjo-Iweala would want people to think. Soludo’s arguments are clear: neither Jonathan nor Buhari would be able to deliver on their promises on the economy, especially if oil prices remain below $60. The former CBN governor was on point in saying that while both parties are promising El Dorado, which is a mirage, considering current realities, they are missing the golden opportunity to sensitize the citizenry about the enormous challenges ahead and the need to mobilize them for the inevitable sacrifices they would soon be called upon to make. Even though Business Day in his Wednesday edition has put an estimate to what it would cost each party to execute its plans, both are way above what the government can ever realize in revenue and loans. Soludo’s submission that without the dollar or naira signs to it, what the two dominant parties are presenting to Nigerians is nothing but a wish-list, becomes a food-for-thought, therefore. “They are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix,” he says. To be fair, Soludo did not spare either of the parties. But his submissions are not unduly harsh or unjustified. 

If the Federal Government is evidently wobbly in its approach to running a sustainable economy or convincing voters of its sincerity, the main opposition party ought to be presenting a well-prepared, far better alternative that is rich in figures and definitive in its promises. This is a bitter but needed admonition not to jump into a pool of still water blindly. Stemming the tide of corruption in public service, reducing external debt and blocking waste may be a good way to begin a rescue measure, according to this Professor of Economics. But they are not sufficient in delivering on all the promises being made, particularly for a country whose economy rests largely on a single product. Grim as the outlook of his paper might be, he is not unmindful of the fact that radical and ingenious approach to governance, in addition to running an efficient and accountable government, will go a long way in rebuilding the fortunes of this prodigal nation that has frittered away much of its blessings. While we should find Okonjo-Iweala’s latest response not to join issues with the former CBN governor dodgy and unacceptable, particularly from one who claims to be coordinating the economy, it is important to salute Soludo’s timely intervention on the strength that matters of the economy is not like playing ludo. You cannot gamble through it or dance your way round it.

*Steve Ayorinde is an award-winning journalist and former managing director/editor-in-chief, National Mirror newspapers.

Culled from TheCable

Nigeria’s Eko Atlantic City Takes Shape

The new multi-billion DOLLAR Eko Atlantic City with residential and commercial tower blocks off the coast of Lagos in Victoria Island is taking shape as developers for

ge ahead with infrastructure development.

Eko Atlantic is being built from scratch on reclaimed land offshore from the Atlantic Ocean, and is set to provide 250,000 homes and offices for 150,000 commuters.

In a media brief early January, David Frame MD of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, the developers of the city, said that infrastructure development such as roads, drainage and power supply is well under-way.

He stated that the city when completed would be self-sufficient in terms of power and energy supply, adding that it would be powered by Independent Power Project (IPP).

Describing the lighting project, Frame assured that the first row of lights along Eko Boulevard, a paved 8-lane thoroughfare which is the spine of the Business District, would also be extended this year.

"Building blocks under construction in the city can now clearly be seen from Ahmadu Bello Way on Victoria Island and the Marina on Lagos Island," he said

According to Frame, paved roads, sidewalks and kerbs are being built in the first and second phases of the emerging city. The first 15-storey tower in the city would be ready for occupation in first quarter of 2016.

When the former US President, Bill Clinton visited the site last year accompanied by President Goodluck Jonathan, he said the city would attract people worldwide in the NEXT five years and would improve the domestic economy of Nigeria and bring enormous opportunities to the world.

The city hopes to attract financial institutions with luxury developments, with the goal being to establish Lagos as a commercial hub for the West African region.

Africa has the world’s fastest-growing cities, according to the United Nations. Its current urban population of 450 million is expected to triple in the next four decades.

Lagos Housing Market

Average rent on a three-bedroom apartment in downtown Lagos is $1200 a month, according to Dubai-based research firm Reidin.

Landlords usually expect two years of rent in advance, preferably paid in U.S. Dollars. It is a challenge for Nigeria’s middle class, whose income averages about $600 a month, according to Renaissance Capital.

Home loans come with double-digit interest rates.

To keep pace, construction activity expands by 13% a year, according to government statistics. Architect Ade Laoye estimates that Lagos needs at least needs 10,000 additional houses a year.

The Love Between Jonathan And Hennessy

Of course, handling the affairs of a complex country like Nigeria is no job for a peewee. More so, all work no play make Goodie a dull dude. 

For those who worry their heads over the choice of drink that our dear president fancy, well those who say he loves Vodka may not be too far from the truth but what I do know is that pictures don’t lie as my dear president obviously is a Cognac lover as the bottle of Hennessy on his side of the table in the picture (below) has shown. Shekau or no Shekau; Jaiye Ori E jare Baba mi (Apologies KSA)

Pix courtesy: City Rovers Magazine

Brother Attacks Ayo Fayose: ‘You Are A Shame’ –Isaac Fayose

Ayo Fayose

The internal wrangling among the Fayose siblings re-echoed today as one of the brothers of Ekiti State governor, Isaac, has describe his elder brother Ayo, a shame.

Isaac, a businessman and owner of Alibi Lounge, Lekki, Lagos, was miffed that his brother would forget their late sister, Bimpe Sorinolu, in hurry and he took to the social media to register his anger. 

"Gov. Fayose can rush to the media houses to place front page adverts of death wish for Buhari but cannot remember to place a quarter page adverts in remembrance of his sister, Bimpe Sorinolu who died of cancer exactly 2 years ago today. Shame!" Isaac broadcasts via his Blackberry Messenger Friday morning.

Isaac Fayose

Bimpe died of cancer two years ago in the United Kingdom, where she had gone for treatment.

Bimpe Sorinolu

The cold war in the Fayose family is not strange to many. While alive, Bimpe and his brother were always at loggerhead. Ditto Isaac and other siblings.

Afolayan’s October 1 Grosses Over N100m

Afolayan with Denzel Washington

Multiple award-winning filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan, has revealed that his latest thriller, October 1, has grossed over N100 million since its premiere.

In a chat with Nigerian Entertainment Today newspaper, Afolayan said in spite of the classification of the film as 18 and above which makes it unsuitable for viewing by minors and also reduces the potential of high box office returns, he has been able to gross such impressive amount.

“I make films for the international audience. What we have made from October 1 in Nigeria so far is more than N100m, but it is not just from cinema box office. We did private screenings and we’ve done screenings on other platforms,” he revealed.

Figures from the cinemas revealed that Afolayan’s film has been closely trailing Comedian AY’s 30 Days In Atlanta, which grossed over N140m in Nigeria, smashing the long-standing highest earning record held by Ije.

Afolayan is at present in the United States, where he met the African-American Hollywood icon, Denzel Washington.

He is already tiding up work on his next movie project which he assured will also be a mind-blowing thriller.

 Culled from P.M.NEWS

How Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, Wife Escaped Plot To Kill Them

Ituah & Ibidun Ighodalo...Pix courtesy Stella Dimorkus

An attempt by two domestic staff to poison Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House, a mega church in Victoria Island, Lagos, western Nigeria, has been foiled.

The two workers allegedly connived with a herbalist to hatch the plot to enable them kidnap the pastor’s wife, Ibidunni, and demand for a ransom of N80 million.

But the plot was foiled by the couple before they could actualise it. The police have arrested the two domestic staff and the herbalist and charged them to court for attempted murder.

Police identified the suspects as Abdulkareem Mohammed, 24, the alleged mastermind of the plot, employed by the couple as a dog handler, Makinde Ewuosi, 36, a native doctor who resides at 21, Joseph Street, Lagos Island and has his shrine at 9, Alofun Street, Lagos Island, and Paul Eke, 29, a security guard at Osborne Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos where the couple resides.

Police investigation revealed that nemesis caught up with the suspects when the couple’s pet dog named Simba suddenly died from food poisoning at their residence at Ikoyi, Lagos.

Suspecting a foul play, the couple contacted their dog’s doctor to conduct an examination on it to know the cause of its death and the doctor’s report revealed that the dog died from food poisoning.

The couple reported the incident to the police and the dog handler was arrested and taken to the station for interrogation.

During interrogation, according to the police, the dog handler (Mohammed) from Borno State, allegedly confessed that he mixed poisonous substances given to him by a herbalist with food for the dog to eat and after the dog ate the food it died.

In his alleged confession to the police, Mohammed further said: “The security man in our estate, Eze, brought the information that if we poison my boss to death, kidnap his wife and demand for N80 million ransom we would be rich overnight. And to actualize our mission, I went to consult a native doctor, Ewuosi for help.

“And after explaining my mission to the native doctor, he gave me poisonous black powder, black soap and sponge with a directive that I must use the powder to poison my master’s dog to know the effectiveness of the poison and if it vomits and dies, I should use it to poison anybody.

“After the dog died, we were still planning how to use the poison on my boss and kidnap his wife for ransom before I was arrested. But I don’t know how the devil used me to plan such evil against my employers because they were taking good care of me. I pray to God to forgive me.”

Following his alleged confession, Mohammed led the police to arrest the herbalist and the security guard.

Ewuosi, the herbalist, allegedly confessed that he prepared some concoctions for the dog handler but not to kill anybody.

After investigation, the suspects were charged before a Tinubu Magistrates’ court on a two-count charge of attempted murder of Pastor Ituah Ighodalo and his wife, Ibidunni.

The offences, the police prosecutor, Supol Chidi Okoye said, are punishable under sections 409 and 228(1)(2) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.

The accused persons, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge in the open court, and Chief Magistrate Miss A.O. Awogboro admitted them on bail in the sum of N500,000 each with two sureties each in like.

Awogboro directed the prosecutor to send the case file to the DPP’s office for advice and adjourned the case till 18 March, 2015 for mention.

The defendants were, however, taken to Ikoyi Prison, Lagos, pending when they will fulfill their bail conditions.

Culled from P.M.NEWS

'Jonathan Only Wants ‘Guaranteed Victory’ Says Tinubu

 

 

Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed the reason given for the postponement of the election, accusing Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), of acting out a script.

He alleged that Jega was hiding under the guise of insecurity to safeguard the interest of the federal government. “What happened Saturday was actually not a postponement due to security or logistical reasons. What happened was the by-product of overt political interference undermining the independence of the election management body, INEC,” he said in a statement.

“Jega said he hinged his decision on a purported letter stating that due to an impending offensive, the security agencies would not have the personnel to spare to adequately guard the polling areas in the north eastern states.
“It is nothing but a lie draped in a falsehood born by deceit. It was not done for the national good. It was the wrong thing done for the wrong reason by the wrong man.
“They have gone on an offensive already. However, the true offensive is not against Boko Haram. It is against the Nigerian people and our democracy.
“The date and importance of the election was well-publicised. Why did they wait till now? They waited because they were given marching orders by the president to delay the elections.
“President Jonathan has revealed that he only wants elections where the guaranty is that he shall win. His government has purposefully undermined the electoral process because he is not interested in a free, fair and honest election where the outcome reflects the sovereign will of the people. He wants an elaborate coronation dressed in the garb of an election. The Nigerian people are too smart for this rude trick.”
Tinubu alleged that Jonathan opted for the postponement out of the fear of losing, saying that APC would emerge victorious at the poll.
He appealed to supporters of the party to remain calm but maintained that the delay had an untoward effect. “The postponement has deeply wounded Nigerian democracy,” he said.
“While my party hoped to go into the election and win it that we may offer a new and honest deal to the people, this government continues to feed the people a raw deal.
“They will attempt more tricks before the six weeks is over but each time, they will be defeated by the power of our commitment to a new day in a new democratic Nigeria.
“Thus, we do not despair. I ask our supporters and Nigerians to remain calm and do everything to keep the peace. I ask you to renew your determination in the face of this insult to our democracy and common sense. It is inevitable that change shall come and we shall bring it fairly, democratically and peacefully.”

Culled from TheCable

Jonathan’s Latest Evil And The Good of Bad By Pius Adesanmi

Pius Adesanmi

Shortly before he withdrew totally from discussing and keeping abreast of Nigerian current affairs, a friend once advanced a thesis that has since haunted my consciousness and kept me awake at night. What worries me is not just the suspicion that his nightmarish proposition may damn well be right, it is the knowledge that I have come close to that conclusion so many times myself. Now, that really scares me.

He is in his fifties. Some thirty of his fifty something years on earth he has spent in Europe, Canada, and the United States (Egbon, sorry o, I warned you I would have to use this your story in an op-ed one day). The thirty something years he has spent outside of Nigeria has been spent permanently agonizing about the terrible tragedy that is Nigeria. The success he has made of his life outside has not been any comfort. Thirty years of pain and anguish, of gnashing of teeth, of sorrowing, of headache, of being in a state of permanent dissatisfaction because of the terrible failures of his Nigerian homeland. When he left Nigeria in the 20th century (1980), regular electricity and water were the stuff of miracle in his hometown. He visits every other year. During his visit in 2010, he realized that he was now in the 21st century and regular electricity and water were still the stuff of miracle in his hometown.
That visit was in 2010. What he also realized is that the Nigerian tragedy has consumed the self-worth and dignity of the citizen. Water and electricity were irregular when he left (although much better than what obtains today) but you knew that those services were your right. You did enough social studies in primary school, enough Government in secondary school, to understand that those are things that must come with the territory of your citizenship. And there he was in 2010 surrounded by citizens ready to call you a traitor and shout you down if you are not sufficiently grateful to whoever is currently stealing from them for providing a kilometre of road here, one hour of electricity there, refurbished World War II locomotives here and there.
There he was surrounded by folks ready to go and give testimony at Church on Sunday for the miracle of three hours of electricity. Between 1980 and 2010, the ruling classes had ensured the total annihilation of civic sentience and awareness, producing the sort of psychology ready to be grateful for President Goodluck Jonathan’s mediocrity – and to label those who are not grateful for it unpatriotic. Nigeria has thus produced two generations of citizens without civics and that in itself is a crime committed against the people by their rulers.
We are talking about 2010, the year of my friend’s crisis of consciousness when he travelled home to Nigeria. Things were even still good. That was long before the incubus that is President Goodluck Jonathan went to Kenya to announce to the world that Nigeria has the highest number of private jets in Africa and that is how he measures the well-being of Nigerians. My friend put all these scenarios together and announced to me that he was through with Nigeria. At fifty something, he was going to dedicate the next phase of his life to being a patriotic American citizen. I asked him why and that’s when he gave me the rationalization that has traumatized me ever since.
He told me coolly that he is no longer interested in thinking through Nigeria’s endless self-inflicted woes and self-designed failures because he has accepted and made peace with the fact that not all countries are meant to be good. Not all people are meant to make a success of nation statehood. Not all people are meant to make it to the mountain top of project nationhood. Some countries, he said, are meant to be permanently bad, permanently dysfunctional, and permanently unsuccessful and even if you gave Dubai to such countries they’d transform it to Darfur in no time. He is able to live with this sad conclusion, he tells me, because in their badness, such countries serve a good purpose, a good cause: they serve as examples to others of how not to run a country, how not to envision and envisage project nationhood, how not to be a country. Another Nigerian would later make this fatalistic claim on my Facebook wall: he has accepted his fate and accepted Nigeria as is because some countries are not meant to be good.
When I heard of the great evil that Goodluck Jonathan had visited on our country today, my mind went to this thesis. I was despondent and discouraged. My heart palpitated. I very nearly drove to the Residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to drop my passport with Ojo Maduekwe and be done once and for all with a nation-space that has found permanent employment for my tear ducts. I don’t need this, I tell myself. That one wicked, evil man could scheme to reverse every gain we have made on our journey as a people since June 12, 1993 was just too much for me to bear.
Make no mistake about it, what Goodluck Jonathan has called a postponement of the election, after getting his compromised security goons (especially his irresponsible National Security Adviser) to intimidate and blackmail INEC, is a pre-annulment of an election in which he was going to suffer a humiliating defeat. Boko Haram has never stopped Goodluck Jonathan from frolicking and partying away in Kano or from marriage festivities anywhere. Boko Haram murdered two thousand Nigerians and he was more worried about a dozen journalists murdered in France. To now use Boko Haram so cynically to rape our democracy is an ultimate act of treason for which, one must hope, Goodluck Jonathan and all the enablers of his evil shall one day stand trial.
Questions assailed me: are we meant to do Africa and the rest of humanity a good turn by being bad as a country? Are we the bad example that aspiring democracies in Africa must use as a guide out of the woods? If you want to make a success of 21^st-century nation-statehood and the practice of genuine democracy, study Nigeria and avoid her steps? Is this the good ordained to come out of our bad? Is this the joke we have allowed folks like Goodluck Jonathan to reduce us to?
I found my answer in hours of online and telephone interaction with outraged Nigerians all over the world. Across all our fault lines – ethnicity, religion, etc – they poured out into our spaces and spheres of national discursive communion to condemn evil. Even career Jonathanians, too far gone in whatever highs he serves them to be able to openly admit that Goodluck Jonathan is not Jesus Christ the infallible – had enough sense to recognize the great evil that their man has visited on our country and wisely kept a low profile today. Only a few irredeemable career Jonathanians have been out defending this treasonable civilian coup-d’état.
The near-national consensus on the recognition of the great evil that was done to our country today and the strident determination of our people to persevere, persist, and overcome has taught me a fundamental lesson. Perhaps some countries are meant to be bad and, in being bad, serve a good purpose of example to others. Perhaps some people are fated to eternal self-inflicted injuries and self-designed failures on a doomed march to nationhood. Perhaps some people are not meant to make it to the mountaintop of project nationhood. None of these things matters to me anymore for Nigerians have taught me today that what matters is how history records a people’s reaction to the badness in which they find themselves on the great pathways of history. In your millions, you poured out to the public sphere to have your voices recorded against badness and evil. The Jonathan junta rolled out troops, thinking you’d give them the excuse of violence to shed your blood but the fools do not know that your victory lies elsewhere.
And we must pity President Goodluck Jonathan, holder of a (P)owerful (H)igh (D)egree from the University of Port Harcourt. We must pity him because he is devious and he has surrounded himself with criminals and evil men bent on ruining Nigeria. That is why they are afraid to let him know the truth they now understand only too well. Reuben Abati, for instance, has read too many books not to understand that what is happening now is a mass movement for integrity in which Buhari has become a transcendental sign. Buhari is now a sign and a movement has coalesced around that sign. When that happens, no force is powerful enough to stop the movement of such a tide. Even Buhari is powerless to stop what is blowing across Nigeria now and has adopted him as arrowhead irrespective of his human strengths and weaknesses. This tide has become so much bigger than Buhari now – big enough for a Nobel laureate to sense it and carefully arrange himself.
Those who have read some books in the confederacy of criminals around President Jonathan are afraid to tell their Oga that pre-annulment or postponement – whatever they call it – is powerless against this sort of tide. This tide is an idea whose time has come. We have now heard them in the Ekiti tapes so we understand only too well what they hope to achieve with this so-called Boko Haram postponement: re-oil the rigging machine and promise juicy promotions to key military men. Unfortunately for these puny little men trying to stand in the way of the hurricane that is blowing across Nigeria, their scheme is dead on arrival.
The people who rose up en masse today to condemn Goodluck Jonathan’s evil were going to do just one thing on February 14: punish him for failure and send him packing to Otuoke. Now, he has annoyed many more people than were going to sack him. He has merely strengthened the tide and the movement. The Nigerians who were going to sack him for only one reason in February must now sack Goodluck Jonathan for two reasons in March: (1) Failure; (2) Treason.

Governors In A Time of Austerity, By Tolu Ogunlesi

Tolu's Caricature

This week I promised to focus on Nigeria’s state governments, the second most powerful nodes of political power in Nigeria’s federal system, after the hugely powerful centre. It is a testament to the clout of Nigeria’s Governors that, since 1999, only one of the five men who have held presidential and vice presidential power has never been a Governor. Governors are also more likely, than any other section of the political class, to end up as Federal Ministers and Senators.

The power of Nigeria’s state governors comes mainly from the oil wealth that gets shared to them monthly, from the federal government. There’s a complicated formula that guides this sharing. 52.68 percent of everything that goes into the Federation Account – oil earnings up to the benchmark price, less the 13 percent derivation that goes to oil producing states; Customs revenues less the cost of collection; and Company Income and Value Added Taxes less the cost of collection – goes to the Federal Government, leaving the states and local governments to share the remaining. It is this Federation Account allocation that state commissioners of finance travel monthly to Abuja to collect. Oil producing states, as I mentioned earlier, also get to share a derivation fund that is 13 percent of oil revenues based on the benchmark price fixed annually by the Ministry of Finance. To augment Abuja’s monthly allocation the states depend on internally generated revenues – mainly taxes, including PAYE, and land use charges.
In 2013 the states that got the biggest chunks of Abuja oil money were, in this order: Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Lagos, Kano, Katsina, Oyo, Kaduna, and Borno. Wide gaps exist between the states, so that Akwa Ibom in 2013 received almost three times as much as Borno, tenth on the list. States like Ekiti and Ebonyi, belonging to the bottom of the list, receive only a fraction of what the richer states get. Take June 2013 for example: that month, while Akwa Ibom collected 30 billion naira, Rivers, 25 billion, and Lagos 16 billion, Ekiti got 6.9 billion, while Ebonyi got 6.4 billion.
First it is important to note that, because of the meagerness of their internally generated revenues, most of Nigeria’s states are almost wholly dependent on the monthly cheques from Abuja. Cut that supply and, as I said last week, they would be comatose entities, unable to pay workers’ salaries, or build roads and schools and hospitals. Of the handful of independent states, Lagos lies at the top – at least two-thirds of its budget is funded from internally generated revenues, and it is the state most likely to survive the steep drop in Abuja allocations that will define 2015.
Now, what do state governments do with the monies they receive, from Abuja and from internally generated revenues? For many states, most of it is used to pay salaries. Public service jobs, researcher Olly Owen recently pointed out to me, “are in effect social security in Nigeria, the only direct cash transfer citizens get.” I very much agree. The civil service is the closest thing we have to a social security system. It is the largest safety net in the country, allowing millions of people to earn a living that is not in any way tied to productivity.
At the beginning of this year Osun State publicly lamented the state of its finances. In a statement, the government noted that its share of Abuja’s oil wealth has gone down from 4.6 billion naira, to 1.1 billion naira. The state’s monthly wage bill: 3.6 billion naira. Osun is not alone. Governor Suswam of Benue says that the state civil service – an estimated 29,000 people – consumes 3.1 billion naira monthly in salaries and wages. Now it doesn’t even get that much in monthly allocations, and is now one of several states owing salaries. With all these states struggling to even pay salaries, there is no chance of having any money to invest in infrastructure. Even wealthy states like Akwa Ibom are feeling the pinch. In 2014 the state put out a budget of 498.4 billion. At the end of the year it didn’t even receive up to half of that; it ended up spending only 221.4 billion naira, according to Governor Akpabio.
It’s only going to get worse. As the oil price slump continues, state governments will have to ask themselves tough questions about their spending patterns, and revenue generation ambitions. One thing is not in doubt: that the personal appetites of governors for state funds will have to reined in. Governors will need to, in these times of austerity, trim their patronage machines.
There’s a Bible verse that for Nigerians justifies the view that public officials are allowed to reasonably partake of the abundance of public office. “You know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple and that those who serve at the altar get their share of its offerings, don’t you?” the Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 9:13. It’s the same point that Mr. Diepreye Alamieyesigha was making, when he said, in an interview while he was still Governor of Bayelsa (I got the quote from the book, A Paradise of Maggots, by academic and journalist Wale Adebanwi), that “there is no person in this world that works in the exalted position of a governor or president that would say he is a perfect human being, that depends solely on his salary! Nobody is a saint. My salary is 74,000 naira.” The problem, many would say, was that he went overboard in his erasure of the line between private and public money. He paid a steep price for it, a price that not even his recent rehabilitation by President Jonathan will be able to compensate him for. James Ibori was just as unlucky; unlucky because there are many other Governors who were as corrupt as they were but got away with their antics.
Now, in these days of austerity, governors will need to realize that eating from the altar should not at any time cross over into eating the altar. One place to start cutting down on the appetites for state funds is the security votes, the special allocations that governors and the president get, to fund the maintenance of peace and security in their jurisdictions, and for which they do not have to seek appropriation or make account. The sums vary from state to state, usually running into hundreds of millions of naira every month, and are almost always a state secret. When Rochas Okorocha became Governor of Imo State in 2011, he announced that he was slashing his security vote from 6.5 billion naira per annum, to 2.5 billion, to enable him fund the state’s free education programme. Now I have no idea if that was simply one of those promises politicians make, but have no intentions of keeping, or if indeed he has kept it.
There is at least one NGO that is campaigning for the abolition of security votes across Nigeria, citing the propensity of governors for looting it. Knowing Nigeria, security votes will be with us for some time to come. But state governors will have to start realizing that when un-curtailed appetites meet diminishing resources, disaster is certain to happen. Citizens and civil society also ought to realize that state governors deserve to be placed under the harsh light of determined public scrutiny, to the same extent to which we are learning to put the almighty federal government. Our state governors are getting away with delivering too little value compared to the size of the resources entrusted to their care.

WAIT! THE TIME TO PROTEST THE POSTPONEMENT IS NOT NOW By Ayo Sogunro

A typically passionate Nigerian who wakes up this morning—or more likely stayed awake last night—to the news that the much anticipated February 14 elections have been postponed would likely get into a righteous kind of mad.

This isn’t just about what party this individual supports or what candidate the individual desires to vote for; the theft of the people’s legitimate expectations goes beyond party politics.
February 14 is not a sacrosanct political date. But still, a negative emotional reaction is not unreasonable in the circumstances. Expectations have been high, plans have been made. A number of people have drawn up their actions and decisions around the date of the elections. Meetings have been scheduled, deals have been postponed, work leaves have been taken, tickets have been booked, monies have been expended. If this was a private affair between individuals, the postponement is a valid cause of action in contract or in tort.
So, yes, the average Nigerian has the right to get mad about this. But, just maybe, this is exactly what the orchestrators of the postponement are counting on.
They probably want us Nigerians to get angry. Or they want the opposition to get angry. Angry enough, maybe, to gather a few compatriots and march on the streets in protest, march in anger and march into the waiting arms of the armed forces—already deployed across the country in expectation of this reaction. The next scenario is imaginable: a few stones are thrown; a few shots are fired. Someone falls down, dies and there is mass pandemonium. President Jonathan, never slow to make the worst of a bad situation, declares a curfew and even more parts of the country are put under a state of emergency.
Won’t some people in the Federal Government of Nigeria like that very much?
Or maybe, just maybe the anger won’t be spontaneous, maybe it would build up in the course of the week and manifest as a peaceful rally—a demonstration by activists—to protest the monopolization of the electoral process by this bully of a government. The protesters may mean no harm, they may just want some demonstration against a government that is being too clever by half. A few placards to be carried to the State House. But, maybe, the government is eager for this too: the protest is easily infiltrated by sponsored saboteurs. In the course of this imagined protest, some unknown persons get violent and the police dispense some teargas. The demonstrators are dispersed and dear Goodluck Jonathan imposes a curfew. A state of emergency is declared for additional flavour.
Some folks in Aso Rock would be overjoyed.
Do these scenarios sound far-fetched? Do you, honestly, think Nigerian politicians are not that confounding in their scheming?
Two answers if you are more optimistic than I am: One, listen to the so-called Ekitigate audio recording and hear the malevolent passion, the hyperventilation, arising over a mere state election, then imagine what the strategy meetings would be like for the federal election; Two, just don’t underestimate the illogical desperation of your average Nigerian politician. Oath-swearing, back-stabbing, carpet-crossing—these things come naturally to people whose livelihood is derived from the public slush fund. These folks will do almost anything to cling to power, either directly or by proxy.
You see, the current federal administration of Nigeria is clueless, probably, only when it comes to the formulation and execution of well-rounded developmental policies. For every other activity, the folks in Aso Rock are top-of-the-line thinkers. Like even the most primitive of organisms, this administration’s instinct for self-preservation is highly developed.
But why this desperation? You may wonder. Why can’t they take their chances at the polls or just go away in peace? Sadly for GEJ’s people, the current political circumstances are too risky: they face an opposition candidate with a historical penchant for being “unreasonable”, and worse, he is presently surrounded and supported by an array of ambitious politicians who hold personal and general grudges against major characters in this administration.
Politicians survive by cutting deals. But for GEJ, there are no more deals to be made with the other side, right now. The folks currently in Aso Rock understand their dead-end, and they need a way out of the mess they have created for themselves through six years of maladministration.
But no, they don’t want to stay in power forever, they simply want to stay in power for as long as they are able to destabilise the system, destabilise it just enough to handicap it from coming after them if they have to leave office.
Ironically, their brilliant solution to their own mess is to make things even messier. But, in a country like Nigeria, irony can work out quite well.
Let the main opposition party be honest here, let Nigerians who want Jonathan out of office also consider this: the major opposition party isn’t going to make the transition period a piece of cake if they come into power. A lot of aggrieved people currently in the opposition are gearing up to make life miserable for a lot of folks in the current government. It is an opposition party of revenge-seekers. Oh no, an Amaechi isn’t going to kiss and make up with a Patience Jonathan when positions are changed. The interests of individuals in both major parties have become irreconcilably opposed.
And so, this election is literally a matter of life and death for some folks in the current administration: there are people in this government who face the possibility of long prison terms should their opposition come into power. But no matter how clueless he may seem to you, GEJ isn’t just going to hand over the keys to his own jail cell to Buhari.
Do not underestimate the desperation of these jokers in government; a lot of them would rather see the country burn than risk their own skins. And so they are working hard, very hard to ensure that 2015 doesn’t materialise the way we have contemplated it. The first stage of their plan is the postponement of the election—just to turn up the tension a tad—using the Boko Haram War as an excuse. They don’t give a damn about safeguarding the country—they are merely using their own incompetence to justify even more treachery. If Boko Haram wasn’t an option, they would have found another: the uncollected voters’ cards, allegations of a corrupted electoral commission, court orders against the election, even the second coming of Jesus Christ. Attahiru Jega, sadly, will be the villain of this drama. But the script had been written long before Jega started printing his beloved PVCs.
When the postponement period elapses, then they plan to declare elections totally impracticable by invoking s.135(3) of the Constitution to extend their tenure, and then finally deciding to voluntarily stepping down for a coalition interim government when the country is fully tensed.
You see, again, while most of you were collecting your PVCs, these politicians were collecting visas for their families. They expect us to fight, but we won’t. Their ultimate plan is to cut deals when things go bad, to get some immunity under the table. They don’t want to be voted out, they want to leave the stage voluntarily. That is their escape plan—their prison break—and its success or otherwise depends on how we much we allow ourselves to get tensed up.
Fortunately for us, a lot of Nigerians are level-headed. Some of us even understand the full agenda of this desperate government, and we’ve foreseen these moves even before they were fully conceived.
But there’s a lesson here for the major opposition party: don’t underestimate your opponents, a lesson here for all Nigerians: don’t underestimate the illogical desperation of these politicians.
Nevertheless, the time to protest the postponement is not now, but it will come later.
So yes, let them postpone the elections, they have the legal powers to do that. However, this is not the time to tense up and ready ourselves for a fight. Ignore calls to take to the streets—they will likely be government-sponsored agendas. It may sound counter-intuitive but, no, don’t protest this—yet. Now is the time to relax and enjoy Valentine’s Day in the usual fashion. In March, we will reconvene to vote.
And the heavens help the conspirators in this administration if the opposition party wins.
For the effective protest will come after a new administration has come into federal power. We would not forget this injustice. We would probe into the election files. We will request to know what conversations, what facts, justified this postponement. And if we find complicit conspiracy, we would demand the prosecution and sentencing of those bastards who scripted and deliberately acted out this villainous decision.

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Ayo Sogunro is the author of Everything in Nigeria is Going to Kill You. A lawyer by profession, he also indulges in socio-legal philosophy on this blog. Interact with him on Twitter via @ayosogunro.

‘We Didn’t Abandon Prince James Uche’-Ibinabo Fiberesima

Ibinabo

Ibinabo Fiberesima, the national president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, has said that the Guild never abandoned ailing actor and member, Prince James Uche.

The actors’ leader cleared the air on the story making the rounds especially in the social media that AGN has abandoned the actor.

Prince Uche

Ibinabo disclosed that in September 2013 when the Guild got the information about Uche’s health issue, they took over the responsibility.

She noted that as the national president, she visited him and he refused to be taken to hospital or access the health plan of the Guild. Rather, he told the AGN team that he needed cash and an initial N100,000 was given to him.

Her words: “In May 2014, we visited him again to check on him after which we took him to R. Jolad Hospital Gbagada, Lagos State where comprehensive tests were conducted and he was diagnosed of complications arising from HBP/Hypertension which led to stroke of the eye. He was admitted and well treated at the hospital for over a week before he was certified well and discharged by the doctor.

“After that, we took him to Eye Foundation for further optical treatment. The medical team discovered that the eye vessel that supplies blood to the eyes was damaged as a result of a stroke he suffered many years ago, and nothing could be done. It was then recommend that he keeps the blood pressure low at all times to avoid further complications which could lead to total blindness.”

Ibinabo added that to ensure Uche gets regular medication for the HBP, the Guild enrolled him on a Health Plan with an HMO at R. Jolad Hospital Gbadaga close to his residence and equally obtained a dietary guide to help curtail his high blood pressure.

The AGN president also revealed that on 26 May, 2014 during the first year anniversary of Lagos State Chapter of the Guild, Uche was presented a cheque covering two years rent to his agent in the presence of all members of Lagos State Chapter.

She also approved pocket money allowance as well as food items for him.

Between June and December 2014, the Guild claimed to have been in constant touch with Uche and he never told any of them of any kidney ailment neither did all the tests conducted on him both at R.Jolad Hospital and Eye Foundation Hospital indicate any sign of kidney problem.

“During the medical expedition, Prince Uche told us that his church took him for dialysis three times and they found no problem with his kidney. Much as we would not like to join issues or publicise any assistance offered to our members, we sincerely wish to set the records straight that Actors Guild of Nigeria did not neglect Prince James Uche. We have done everything humanly possible to assist him. We remain committed to the welfare of our members which is top most priority on my programme,” she said.

Written by Funsho Arogundade for P.M.NEWS